TVA talks about goals for its river system
It’s a valuable resource we take for granted every day.
The people of Anderson County, along with all other residents of the Tennessee Valley, enjoy the benefits of an abundant water supply.
Statistics compiled by the Tennessee Valley Authority from a five-year study speak to the value of the river system in the region.
Consider the following numbers:
• 10 billion gallons of water are used in the valley every day and 95.6 percent of that is returned to the river
• Of the 4.4 percent of water that is not returned, 56 percent is used for public water supply (for more than 5 million people), 15.5 percent for power plant cooling, 14.4 percent for industrial uses, and 14.1 percent for irrigation
• Roughly 15.1 million people in the Tennessee valley rely on Tennessee rivers for drinking water
• The river system produces 14,500 gigawatt hours of clean, low-cost hydropower
• The 14 locks of the TVA system allow 28,000 barges towing 45 million tons of goods, saving roughly $500 million dollars annually in shipping costs
• Through marinas and clean boating, TVA is promoting safe handling of oil, plus sewage management, and eco-friendly marina operations.
• TVA is also boosting oxygen in the water - infusing deep waters with life-giving oxygen for aquatic health.
The Tennessee river system is the fifth largest in the nation based on flow but is used more intensively than any other river basin in the country, said Amanda Turk, civil engineer for TVA.
One of the major points of the study is projected future use of the river system.
“We want to be sure our plan is robust enough to handle future use. We project another 1.1 million people in the Tennessee Valley watershed by 2040. Even with all of this growth, we’re showing that even with the economic changes that are coming, our initial assumptions in our original report are still robust enough. That’s why we do these reports over five years. We’re very good stewards of our water,” she said.
“A lot of people take for granted turning on the faucet and it’s not just TVA. We do a lot of work with state and local government behind the scenes that’s not just flood control or recreation. We do work at the water supply uses as well,” Turk said.
And speaking of flood control, unlike last year when TVA had to monitor flood control due to an unusually wet spring, this year they had to wait for water levels to increase to start the process of raising area lakes to summer pool levels, said Tom Barnett, General Manager of River Management for TVA.
He said Norris is at summer pool levels and soon Douglas and Cherokee Lakes will be as well.
“On Norris, we’re actually two-three inches above pool right now. We’re in good shape to start the summer recreation season which kicks off Memorial Day weekend,” he said.
“We try to strike a balance between protecting places like Clinton from flooding but keep lake levels high enough for people to get out and enjoy recreation,” Barnett said.
Would you like to monitor lake levels on your own?
To borrow a phrase, there’s an app for that. The TVA app is available for smartphones free of charge in the app store. It actually started about five years ago but last fall was revamped and improved.
TVA lakes are listed alphabetically and information such as reservoir elevation, tailwater elevation, and average discharge (flow from the dam) is available along with predicted data such as average inflow, midnight elevation, and average outflow. It also has location services, which allows the user to automatically access information on the closest TVA lake.
Generation release information from dams is also available.
Readers can find operating guides for each lake, which helps them make decisions about moving water through its dams. There is also a flood guide and balancing guide, complete with graphs, which includes a historical reference to what lake levels were a year ago on the same date.
The app also features a map function, which shows recreational opportunities such as picnic areas and boat ramps on each lake.
A link to TVA (www.tva.gov) is available on the app, giving news updates for each lake/river.
A general history and major points of interest for each lake is listed on the app as well.